Milk Chocolate
by Mikomi13244
Summary: Hinata's married Naruto and will be expecting soon. Neji has to find someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with in order to create a child to protect the Hyuuga's coming heir. What better person than Tenten, his team mate?
1. Chapter 1: Dark Chocolate

This is a fanfiction solely dedicated to my wonderfully supportive friends!

Oh, and chocolate. XD.

* * *

_Crap._

He was _so _screwed. Hyuugas were not supposed to be screwed. The Hyuuga Neji was _definitely_ not supposed to be screwed. Yet here he was, being inspected by his much hated uncle.

"Neji, since Hinata has recently married—and to that fox boy no less—I have decided to start putting affairs in order for the expected heir to the Main House. It is your duty and responsibility to have a legitimate child to protect that heir. We cannot risk the Hyuuga heir being caught by another clan. The Byakugan can never be exposed; it is the secret that allows us to be so powerful. If you don't start a relationship with a viable female soon, I will have to find someone for you. You know what is required. Go."

A complete hour later, he was still repeating the same mantra in his head.

_Crap. He was so screwed. Totally screwed._

Neji completely ignored Tenten and Lee's combined greeting. They looked at each other, acknowledging the sudden change. Neji was cold, but not _this_ cold. He usually responded with a small, curt nod. The second big hint that something was horribly, disastrously wrong was the fact that his porcelain cheeks were several shades redder than either of them had ever witnessed before.

"You think it's a girl?" Lee whispered loudly, causing Neji's eyes to shoot up and pin his conspiring team mates with a signature glare.

"Lee, when you pass private information to someone, whisp-!"

"But, I was whispering," Lee butt in with an offended look.

The moment Tenten's team had been announced, she knew she was doomed. She'd gone through her complete stash of chocolate. The extra buzz from her seventy-six percent cocoa bars, imported from Stone, only caused more agitation. She had bemoaned fate's cruelty in placing her in a team of perfect opposites. Neji was a cold, hard statue. Lee, on the other hand, was a tad too cheerful for his own good. And Tenten? She had never thought she would survive through the combination of them and her deranged sensei. Why think about the future when you weren't even sure you had one?

Despite everything, she had to admit she was attached. The hours they had spent training together and honestly scrutinizing each other had formed a quiet, intangible bond. This bond had only strengthened when she learned of Sakura's fateful team. Honestly, Neji and Lee were almost saints compared to an angsty Uchiha and enthusiastic Uzumaki. Almost. If only Gai were more understanding than Kakashi, she would be satisfied.

Deciding a good training session was in order to clear his mind, Neji stood up off the ground in one fluid movement. He carefully plucked a few pieces of grass from his meticulously cleaned pants and settled into a well-practiced stance, eyes glinting murderously at an unsuspecting Lee.

Tenten knew that look, knew what that look meant. It meant the great apocalyptic end of time was coming.

_Crap. She was so screwed. Totally screwed._

After a difficult afternoon of getting nailed against trees by her own kunai, Tenten crawled to her water bottle. Neji had almost decapitated her twice during the training. She hadn't seen him this worked up in years. Upon reaching her pack, she realized her water bottle was empty and surreptitiously reached for Neji's half-gallon container.

"All you had to do was ask, you know," Neji murmured while handing his own water bottle over. He smirked at the way she grabbed at it greedily. Really, she ought to have packed a bigger water bottle.

"I don't have any," she mumbled. Apparently, Tenten had traced his thoughts and read his mind.

"Don't glare at me like that. Not all of us have an amazing Hyuuga fortune to constantly replace those crappy pieces of plastic. I stopped buying the big ones after the fifth one cracked. Anyways, thanks."

She handed it back to him, carelessly brushing her fingers against the back of his hand. That one simple motion brought him back to his dilemma. He'd been mulling over what kind of girl to pick. A very desirable ANBU, Neji had a fan club worthy of Sasuke's. Unfortunately, he had high standards. Not a single airheaded girl was worthy of even dating, much less spending the rest of his life with. But, Tenten was a girl. He knew her well enough and she was strong. From an objective point of view, he could see himself living perfectly comfortably with his only female team mate. With this thought in mind, he turned to talk to Tenten.

Tenten was redoing her buns when Neji tapped her on the shoulder. Thinking it was Lee wanting to ask another favor, she turned around with a scowl.

"What do you want now, Lee?" she grunted out. Her coarse manner dropped at the same time her mouth did. Neji was pink again.

"Sorry Neji, you had something to say?"

After several awkward moments (there seemed to be a lot of these today), Neji turned. He looked her straight in the eye and asked.

"Tenten, will you go on a date with me?"

The jade hair stick she had received from Sakura and Ino at her seventeenth birthday bash dropped from between her fingers and hit the ground with an ominous thud. Even Lee and Gai, who normally weren't very sensitive to long silences, looked up from their discussions on youth and spring.

_Yep. He was screwed._

It was then, that Tenten realized no amount of dark chocolate could get her past today.

* * *

Just so you guys know, I normally don't do NejiTen fanfictions. But a certain person forced me to write this for her.

Cough tsukekami cough.

Hope you guys enjoyed this. Oh, and one last thing. See that button down there for reviews. Be a kind Samaritan and press it. Wonderful things will happen to you. XD.

I will update as soon as I get some feedback.


	2. Chapter 2: Spoiled Milk

"Neji! I never knew! Have you finally fallen for the sweet charms our dear Tenten has?" a very boisterous Maito Gai thundered, causing the birds in nearby trees to leave their roosts and take to the sky, "You have no idea how proud of you I am! Finally overcoming your fate you used to believe in, you are a different person from the boy you once were before!"

Neji and Tenten found themselves squashed against each other as two green spandex-clad ninjas proceeded to envelop Team Gai in a tight group hug. Their breaths mingled in the same few cubic centimeters as their eyes met. If Gai and Lee squeezed any harder, their lips would touch and they would…

Kiss.

Gai and Lee, unfortunately, didn't let their poor lip-locked teammates up until several minutes had elapsed. Tenten glared at Lee while Neji shot daggers at Gai.

"You idiots!" she roared, her recently bruised lips widening into a perfect O, "You made us kiss! Kiss! Idiots!"

Tenten proceeded to punctuate every insult she spewed with a volley of kunai hurled at the unsuspecting dynamic duo, now wholly horrified at the sacrilege they had committed. Lee and Gai raised their forearms to protect themselves from Tenten and Neji's combined efforts of extermination.

After reducing the two to a heap of bloody and battered flesh, Tenten sat down. Neji eyed her carefully as she was still reveling in the satisfaction of serving up her long bottled up anger. Would she beat the crap out of him too for having kissed her? Several moments of awkward silence passed before Tenten delivered her verdict.

"Fine. I'll do it."

…

…

"Why?"

"No, Neji, don't you 'why' me! I'm sure you aren't romantically interested or something dumb like that. Just spit out the real reason. _You_ should be the one answering that question. Not me!"

Neji leaned forward, clearing a path through the hazardous waste they had both created. He sat down in front of her and shook her gently on the shoulder until she looked him in the eye. It was time to come clean to the woman he would owe his future sanity to (assuming any was still left). If he was going to spill, then she'd better listen.

"Thank you," he said in a soft, firm voice before wrapping his arms around her, hugging someone for the first time since his father had died.

_What was _wrong_ with Neji? First, he had kissed her (though that had been an accident). Now, he was hugging her? Really. _

Neji let go a few seconds later and calmly related his story. His nonchalance shocked Tenten. Surely he was nervous about doing this for the first time, too?

My uncle. A slight grimace and creasing of his brows.

Hinata and Naruto, married. A deep frown that tugged the corners of his eyes down.

Tenten. A sigh and slight smirk.

"Wait a second. Am I going to marry you?" Tenten whispered at the end of his tale. Neji could be nice when he wanted to, but this was too much too early.

"No, no. I think the best plan of action would be to start off with a couple of dates. Convince my uncle that I am still…ah…human, and hormonal, and whatever ridiculous ideas he has. For us to pull this off, especially in front of Hiashi, we'll have to rehearse a couple of times."

Finally, the question that had been ricocheting around in her skull.

"Ihavetokissyouandhugyouanddr apemyselfalloveryouandspenda lonetimewithyou?" came out in a stream of hurried slurs from Tenten's lips. This took a few moments for both of them to decipher.

"I think we just have to hold hands and embrace occasionally. My uncle knows not to expect too much," Neji responded, cynicism tainting his comments.

"But that's beside the point, you're avoiding my question."

"What question?" Tenten inquired uneasily, she had a feeling Neji was going to ask again.

"Why did you do it?"

Ah, of course. Neji was a genius. It should have been obvious to her that he would ask again. Genius.

"I guess I owe you a lot for watching my back in all those missions. Heck, if Lee had asked, I probably would have said yes too."

"Lee?"

"Well, maybe not _Lee_. Seeing the Beautiful Great Green Beast of Konoha on a daily basis is enough." Tenten smiled, her eyes creasing into two happy crescent moons.

Completely ignoring the mass of green groans and grunts, Neji and Tenten stood up and headed off towards the Hyuuga compound to put their master plan into action. While in the middle of one of the more busy streets in Konoha, Neji reached out and laced his fingers with Tenten's. Several passing fan girls burst into tears, any prospects of reaching the accomplished Hyuuga dashed upon the rocks of despair or sucked straight into the straits of sorrow. Even a heatedly arguing Team Seven stopped short and let their jaws drop.

Sakura recovered quickest and gave Tenten a roguish wink before mouthing "Go get him!" Naruto stopped and nudged a plotting Sasuke, who apparently had only stopped walking because he would have tripped over Naruto otherwise, and that was a disgrace the Uchiha could not stomach. After searching his surroundings in the calculated manner one who is hunted usually possesses, he spotted Neji. More specifically, Neji and Tenten. Even more specifically, Neji and Tenten holding hands together and walking side by side. A competitive glare passed between the white eyes and black pupils. Neji and Tenten strolled past the gawking unbelievers.

"What are you doing?" she managed to hiss out several seconds later, realizing their fingers were still locked comfortably together.

Neji just smirked.

"I'm staking my possession and getting the general public to understand our new 'relationship'," he drawled sarcastically. To complete the image of overprotective ANBU boyfriend, he glared at all passing males in the street. Several actually veered off of their original course and gave the new couple a wide berth. An uncontrollable urge to laugh at and chide the prodigy overcame Tenten and she half-heartedly slapped Neji on the arm. He feigned a pained look.

"Does my Tenten not love me anymore?" he trilled, arranging his usually stoic expression into one of Gai's or Lee's faces of streaming tears and utter emotion. The fact that she had said yes was still messing with his mind and he felt like an idiot. Genius. Just genius that he was converting himself into a Lee or Gai. Suddenly feeling paranoid, he checked to make sure his usual off-white outfit was on. Good, no stretchy spandexy suit.

Really, this wasn't as bad as she thought it was. She could live with Neji for a couple of months.

This was how Hyuuga Hiashi found them as he exited a nearby scrolls shop. The sudden sight of his emotionally detached nephew spewing puppy eyes upon a laughing Tenten proved too much for him and he took on the expression of one who had just swallowed a good gallon of sour and spoiled milk, the kind that had acquired lumps in it. One particular lump was jammed in his throat and refusing to budge.

* * *

Oops! I appeared to have deleted the original comment on here.

Do drop a review!


	3. Chapter 3: Exceptionally Good

My apologies! I wasn't sure where to take this and have been searching for a perfect chapter. I have also tried to keep people more in character.

Read and Review!

But, much thanks to new reviewers:

_loves-emo-guys-with-hair_

_Tennie-chan_

_ueitenten_

_ChristinaAngel_

_Dandelion Cat_

_Under a Rain Cloud_

Old reviewers still much appreciated!

* * *

"Neji, you have responded extremely quickly and indeed found a woman. Step two would be to schedule a dinner between her and our family. When will she be available?"

The subject of Hiashi's scrutiny once again, Neji hid his outrage and thought carefully. Tenten didn't have any family left and would have an open time schedule most of the time.

"I will give you some more time to get to know each other. I, however, do expect her to join us at a family dinner at the end of the month. You will be contacted when the date is set. That will be all."

Hiashi, ever the important asshole, had decided and there was nothing Neji could do to change his mind. Now he would just have to break the news to Tenten. Tenten was sensible. Tenten was strong.

* * *

Tenten was outraged.

"What does your uncle think? Am I a brood mare? I have a life! I have a career! You do too, don't you think so? To quote Gai and Lee, one's life on earth is limited. I have things to do that do not involve popping babies out of my crotch to cover your sick uncle's security issues!"

Neji, in his entire span of existence, had never seen Tenten outraged enough to change colors. Her cheeks were flushed with the red of a ripe peach and she was scowling deeply.

"I understand that this is not the best of times to ask, but you did promise."

"I promised to help you! Not be inspected and poked and prodded by the stuck-up leader of your clan, like a…like a piece of meat in the market!"

Lee, usually tactless, put a hand on Neji's shoulder and firmly dragged him away. The two sat looking at each other for a good half hour until Maito Gai, exuberant sensei of Team 9, poked his head through two oleander bushes.

"All clear!" he whispered, overdoing the secrecy act by covering his mouth with a bandaged hand.

Neji motioned for Lee to go first. He wasn't a fool. Better Lee dead than him. Lee however, still riding on the leftover surge of his earlier wave of smarts and intelligence, gave Neji a forceful shove. The extra push was too much and he wobbled in to Gai's green shoulder.

"Say you're sorry, Neji! If you don't, Tenten will probably break up with you. I can't let that happen to my students. Ninjas especially should know a very important truth in life. This truth is to…" Gai looked at Lee, who automatically completed the sentence.

"Not waste your youth! Now, go! We have faith in you."

Being killed by Tenten was much better than being hugged by Gai and Lee. Only a few feet away sat a very disgruntled Tenten, who was rubbing her temples—a habit that indicated she was thinking.

"My apologies, Neji. You can't control your stupid relatives."

"Accepted," he replied smoothly. Meditation to clear the mind was clearly in order and Neji sat down in front of Tenten and crossed his legs. Only seconds after closing his eyes, he was being prodded back into consciousness by the butt end of a half-polished katana.

"Okay, how about this? We go on a date to Ichiraku's or something like that and make sure a lot of people are watching. I can probably coerce Hinata, Sakura, and Ino into spreading the news. All that's left is a place and time. Since your schedule is usually more crammed then mine, that decision would be yours."

"Right now."

"Now?"

"Yes. I'd like to finish up this business as soon as possible."

"Neh-jee…Are you _nervous_?" Tenten taunted, only half-jokingly. It seemed to her that several different species of the winged insects were fluttering around in her stomach. Tenten, from tough training with her prodigy and insane teammates, had long since acquired experience in battle. The strange pirouettes of her gallbladder were causing bitter bile to rise in the back of her throat. Tenten, nervous? Of course not.

Well, maybe a teensy bit.

"No."

"Aah."

Silence.

"Can we wait a couple more days?"

"I see no point in unnecessary delays."

"No, no. We have to spread the news and arrive in a decent fashion. It has to seem like we actually care enough to, I don't know, do it properly."

"Friday, at 5:00 for dinner. I'll book at reservation at the Thousand Cranes."

"Two days, hmm? Still kind of short."

Neji had already walked away before Tenten finished her sentence.

* * *

Tenten had been skimming through weapons on magazines when she heard a polite knock on her door.

"What?"

A traditionally dressed young man handed her an embossed scroll and murmured politely that he would return tomorrow at noon to retrieve her orders for their restaurant. He bowed low and shuffled away.

Tenten looked down at the white cotton papers and closed the door, one hand spread across her hip. Since when had she ordered anything from a restaurant?

A single golden crane was embossed on the thick red ribbon she ripped off unceremoniously. Her eyes widened as she skimmed through a menu of kaiseki dishes. Kaiseki, Tenten had learned from Sakura, was a type of multi-course formal dinner usually shared with 'significant others' or family.

Oh no.

Oh dear.

Woefully ignorant of the culinary arts of Konoha, Tenten had assumed their dinner would be at some cheap sushi bar. This was formal.

Way formal.

Millions of questions exploded in front of her eyes. What was she going to wear? Tenten's outfits were always baggy and comfortable. How was she supposed to act? She'd attended Arts 112 last summer, but had eventually been dropped from the shinobi class in seduction and sophistication. Tenten was a girl who liked it rough and tough. She much preferred big bangs and bad booboos to bowing and blowing on tea just right.

What, in the name of kami, was she going to do? This was the kind of thing the other girls were trained in! Sakura, messenger medic to Sand, had had to learn all the official customs required to dine with the Kazekage and other members of their council. She knew how to walk in _geta_ shoes, to tie _obi_ perfectly, and to perform such-and-such. Suna had been much impressed by her traditionalist ways and even decided to lodge her permanently. Rumors were even surfacing of Ino going the same way, albeit more for romance than peace-keeping efforts. After years of the same arrogantly handsome prodigies, she'd decided to try her hand in dating in another country.

A brilliant spark fizzled in the darkness of her depression. She'd come upon an answer.

Beep. Bip. Boop. Boop. Beep. Bip. Beep.

"Moshi moshi," an exhausted Sakura mumbled on the other end after several rings. She'd only recently returned to her home and was still recuperating from training with the boys.

"I need help," Tenten whined on the other end, sounding uncharacteristically like Tenten.

"What? Don't tell me Neji ditched you? I thought you just hooked up! But, wait, I thought this was more of a friends with benefits thing, except without any real benefits? Hang on, can you four-way between us?"

Several awkward minutes later, Tenten had bared her dilemma to Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. Ino was going into apoplectic seizure whilst rummaging through her make-up drawers. Sakura's grunts were heard clearly on the end of line two.

"Hang on, Tenten! Ino's going to come with make-up. I'm going to try and dig out some _kimono _and _yukata._ Hinata, why don't you head over first?" Sakura ordered. Years of dealing with unruly and overly sensitive Gaara, Sasuke, and Naruto had brought out an ability to lead and command resources effectively.

Several hours of haranguing and squabbling over which shade of make-up would best match her blue _kimono_ (complete with a scene of ocean side bonsais and cranes) and silver _obi _passed. Hinata was dealing with how to best configure multiple yards of metallic silk on Tenten's waist. Sakura was smoothing out wrinkles on a russet kimono and golden obi for the meet-Neji's-relatives-and-try-not-to-commit-suicide-or-homicide-for-that-matter confrontation. Ino was tweezing a few stray eyebrow hairs over Tenten's left eye and applying mascara to the right simultaneously.

"Mph. I have to say you outdid yourself this time, pig. Someone would have to be an idiot to not appreciate what our tomboy looks like now." Sakura glomped everyone within her reach with multiple gigantic hugs and had to be pried off by an annoyed Ino. Make-up removal from silk and cotton was not easy.

The smoky-brown of Tenten's eyes was matched perfectly with her dark cherry lips, which were outlined into a perfect pout. Her newly painted and polished fingernails skimmed against the smoothness of a bun at the back of her head. She was even kneeling in the exact same position as Hinata and responding automatically to Sakura's etiquette questions. Ino, whose taste was the most exotic, was picking dishes off the menu.

"I assume Neji's covering the cost?"

"Umm, I thought we could split."

"Don't kid yourself; shark fin soup's the cheapest thing on this menu. It also doesn't have prices. That only occurs if you're going to a rich person's restaurant. You and your measly inheritance are not going to be able to afford a dinner like that. Neji, on the other hand, already has a fortune he can retire on."

Ino quirked a perfectly shaped eyebrow at Sakura and grimaced. Tenten was going to need a lot of training before she could even think about entering the Hyuugas' compound. This was stupid. The two didn't even like each other. Neji and Tenten are girlfriend and boyfriend.

Even saying it sounded impossible.

* * *

Neji heard the quiet _tak-tak_ of lacquered _geta_ sandals being placed by the door. He frowned; both Tenten and their personal server were carelessly late. Neji disliked anything out of order. His life was lived in programmed comfort, differing only slightly in who he killed and hated.

The woman who had come into the room was impeccably groomed and dressed in a flashy _kimono._ Neji's frown deepened even more. Traditional restaurants only dressed servers and workers in white. The bright blue and silver were unexpected and out of order.

Neji disliked anything out of order. No exceptions.

"About time, has she arrived yet?" he addressed offhandedly to the server who had displeased him so much.

No exceptions ever.

Tenten took a deep breath and attempted a shy smile. No doubt Neji had assumed she was someone else. Upon looking into the only cracked mirror in her house, she had gasped. The thin willowy woman returning her shocked gaze was absolutely gorgeous. Several men in the street had even whistled and catcalled in appreciation as she passed by. Sakura and Ino's combined efforts were required to restrain Konoha's steel dragon from committing acts of murder in front of innocent eyes.

"Neji, it's me..."

"My god, is that you? What did you do to yourself, Tenten?"

Neji stood up and strode across the room, reaching out for Tenten's perfectly bronzed chin before he even realized his hand had left his side. His fingers just inches away from her upturned cheek, Neji retracted his hand quickly. What had she done? What had she done? Tenten had always been the one who never changed, as strong as the metals she worked with.

"What did you do?"

"What, do I look bad or something?"

"No, not at all." Neji returned his haunches to the coolness of a _tatami_ mat and motioned for Tenten to sit. Despite his coldness, Neji was a human being too. He had desires and impulses too. Right now, he decided a little discordance was acceptable.

Everyone makes exceptions. And Hyuuga Neji is no exception.

* * *

Remember to review. Thank you especially to _adamthm_ for reminding me to stop dilly-dallying on perfection. Please alert me to any typos so that I can fix them!

Much thanks for dealing with me.


	4. Chapter 4: Cacao

As you all probably know, school is starting up again and I will (most definitely) be very busy and unable to update for a while.

I have tried to push this one out as fast as possible and hope you enjoy.

NaruHina and slight NejiTen fluff alerts! XD

* * *

"Whoop! You first, Hinata-chan."

Understanding dawned on Tenten's face as she watched Konoha's cutest couple tumble through the door. Rokudaime Naruto had finally realized Hinata's sweet devotion over the years. They had dated secretly and finally gone public when Naruto had become Hokage. A smart move for the usually not so smart blond, Hinata's father could only graciously accept the pending marriage and stomach some change. He had pulled through in a great display of manners and wished the new couple eternal happiness through a set of loudly grinding teeth.

Sakura had hinted on lightening the mood of the romantic evening and spilling the big secret to Naruto. The loudmouth member of Team 7 was sure to spread the news faster than anyone else. An equally shrewd Ino also pointed out the fact that no one would dare resist the new Hokage they had come to love so much.

Neji, on the other hand, had no prior knowledge and was conversing quietly with Hinata in a quiet corner. This plan had been a pleasant surprise to Tenten. She could only imagine Neji's reaction. He hated anything out of order. Neji finally gave a curt nod and settled down next to Tenten again. He shot her a questioning glance. Tenten put on her best innocent act and ended up with a soul-searing glare from Neji.

"Sorry, Sakura's plan," she mouthed to him while keeping an eye on Naruto and Hinata. There were truly in love and showing signs of it everywhere. Noticing how close Naruto positioned himself to his fiancée, Tenten shifted closer to Neji until her knee met his. He calmly shifted away and glared at her again. A nod in Naruto and Hinata's direction made Neji reluctantly scoot closer, suddenly blaming his woes on the size of the special "couples-sized" tatami mats the restaurant had provided for the happy occasion.

A chuckle across the table drew Tenten's eyes to a blushing Hinata. The red flush was more out of amusement than embarrassment, however. Naruto was loudly retelling a story where Gaara had actually been punched by an angry Sakura for some rude remark or other. Coming to her senses shortly after, the pink-haired medic nin had covered her mouth in horror and jumped the surprised Kazekage in an attempt to mend what damage she had most definitely caused. It had taken awhile to get Gaara to understand she was trying to heal him as Sakura was terrified of endangering the relationships with Suna she had spent years creating (and therefore spoke in incoherent syllables). Eventually, he had let himself be pushed onto a couch, stripped of his normal robe, and examined by her critical eye. The Godaime's apprentice was found concentrating on the redhead's bare stomach when two younger council members came to request some signatures from him. It had taken several days and an official address from Gaara to convince the fidgety gossips on his council that he had indeed, NOT been seduced by or tried to seduce anyone.

Tenten nodded appreciatively at the humorous story and nudged Neji, trying to get him to loosen up a little and laugh. His frosty glance momentarily softened when he realized how uncourteous he was being to his supposed love. Hyuugas were well educated in gentlemanly and ladylike behavior. He let himself smile when Naruto did an over exaggerated imitation of what he thought _the_ Gaara's face had liked like. The powerful and accomplished ruler's defined features clashed decidedly with Naruto's bug eyes and open jaw. Neji would never be caught dead looking like _that. _It was something only idiots like Lee or Naruto would do.

A white robed server knocked politely on the cherry wood door to their private room before entering. Neji noted in approval that he had waited the appropriate five or six seconds after rapping his knuckles before sliding open the door. The young man was groomed and dressed in a crisp uniform of white. He bowed low and announced himself as Uchimura Tanaka.

"The first course of tonight's meal will begin shortly. But, before we start with the food, I will need your orders for drinks."

Naruto and Tenten watched on curiously as Neji and Hinata opened the small menus on beverages.

"Just oolong tea," Hinata murmured a few moments later, nodding in Uchimura's direction with a gracious dip of her head. Neji ended up selecting a tea too. The name was too complicated for Tenten to decipher and she decided to let her superior team mate (and new boyfriend?) take care of business. Knowing Neji's micromanaging genius first hand, she relaxed a little.

_Damn. They better get that food moving fast or I'm going to suffer a stomach gurgle, maybe even faint._

Due to first date butterflies, she had declined lunch with her friends and settled for a few granola bars. This meant she had undershot the amount of daily calories she needed by a large chunk.

Uchimura appeared only seconds later carrying a tray of steamy dishes and cups. He poured delicately from two porcelain teapots for all four of them, taking an inhuman amount of time to finish the task. Geez, she'd probably die of old age if starvation didn't end her first!

Neji frowned for the umpteenth time that night, this time at Uchimura. An aura of disgust and disapproval radiated out in dangerous waves that made Tenten look up. She found nothing wrong with their server and was about to bend and reach for the tea when she noticed his eyes flicker towards her general direction before smirking slightly.

Oh, now that was just disgusting.

Kind and proper Uchimura was glancing at Tenten and Hinata's chests. Among the rookie nine, the two had been the most well-endowed, as Sakura and Ino sometimes liked to complain about. Today's unusual selection of a push-up bra (recommended by Ino, seconded most fiercely by Sakura) was attracting unwanted attention.

But, why in kami's name, was _**NEJI **_concerned about that?

It was more than just a little annoying vibe of arrogance she had felt from the still frowning prodigy. He was radiating the intent to slaughter. Several fingers twitched against his thigh before relaxing. No killing on first dates unless absolutely necessary. She looked up and spotted two clear veins settling back down into his forehead.

Neji had never been the protective type Sakura was trapped with. A quadruple combination of egotistic or too friendly Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi had hemmed her in a box of protection with dimensions much too small. Sometimes, it was cute the way Naruto and Kakashi (occasionally joined by Sai and Sasuke) glared at other males who looked at her too long. It had, however, caused them to suffer through several angry and impassioned outbursts from the pink-haired jounin to go bother other people and let her have a life. Please, please, please. She was begging them to go away. If they really cared as much as they did, they would back off. Poor Sakura had yet to be successful.

Neji didn't care. Lee and Gai had no clue. Tenten didn't know which she preferred.

Besides, she wasn't much of a looker. By far, not the pretti—

Oh, kami. Uchimura had leaned in front of her and placed a triangular dish of two large scallops, gently poached and resting on an exquisite bed of fresh citrus fruit. Two pink curls of grapefruit skin sat between the two pieces of seafood.

"Enjoy," he added with a slightly twisted smile and gentle pat on the back. Tenten smiled before retreating away from him and bumping into a much displeased Neji's shoulder, who gave a stony glare that had the young man out of the room in a few short seconds. Tenten and Hinata shared nervous glances, both of them in tune to Naruto's obvious redness and Neji's stiffness.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata smiled at him to let him know she was perfectly fine, albeit slightly confused.

"Umm, Neji? You okay?"

"Disgusting. The Thousand Cranes can be sure that we won't patronize them again."

"Right on! What the heck was that guy looking at you in that way? And why was he looking at your boobs?" A suddenly embarrassed Hinata attempted to hug a flustered and still envious Naruto. He was going to marry her in a few short months, the loud blond hollered in his mind! People should get used to it.

"It's okay." She giggled and had to settle with a gentle kiss to his whiskered cheek. Konoha's Hokage calmed slightly from the human contact and smiled sheepishly.

"I guess I love you too much, eh?"

A loud rumble from his stomach broke the tense silence and everyone laughed. Neji even smirked, his equivalent to large guffaws and chuckles. Trust Naruto to ruin the moment. Neji himself gave out a long suffering sigh and picked up the two bamboo chopsticks, intent on filling his empty stomach too.

Tenten picked up her pair of chopsticks and cut into the soft flesh of the scallop's heart to let it cool down. She glanced hesitantly at Neji before continuing with the meal. She could tell he was still angry and far from satisfied.

"Neji, relax. So what if he took a peek? You're sort of overreacting. It was just a small thing, I guess."

She was right, he was overreacting. What had happened to him? He was always cool, calm, collected. He was…

…getting patted on the arm by Tenten.

He was?

"I'm not going to kiss you though," she joked, eliciting a sardonic smirk from him, "I don't think you would enjoy that."

"Who says I wouldn't?"

What _had_ happened to him? What did he go and say that for?

"Umm, okay." Tenten sat up a little and brushed her lips against his cheek hesitantly, her breath tickling the corner of one white eye.

"Tenten and Neji, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N—oww!"

Neji had reached over and smacked Naruto upside the head. He had a reputation to maintain after all.

"G!" Naruto finished with childish glee, earning another smack, this time from Tenten. And harder.

"Oww, oww. I can just imagine what your kids would be like. Violent, with the perfect defense and offense. Insecurities from you, Neji. Quick to anger from you, Tenten."

"What would that make your kids look like then, hmm?" Neji questioned offhandedly.

Unable to come up with a witty comeback, Naruto wilted slightly before returning to his food.

"You guys are mean."

Despite all efforts to remain morose and depressed, he had struck up a lively conversation with Hinata within a few seconds and started smiling immediately, perhaps from launching into another story of his friends' hilarious exploits.

"Neji, behave," Tenten reprimanded with a jab at Neji's stomach. It was blocked easily and she returned to eating.

Wow.

This was really good!

It took only seconds for Tenten to finish both scallops and the citrus mint salad underneath. Her stomach demanded more and she looked up, eager to nab some from her unlucky fellow diners. Naruto, too, had already finished his and Hinata's portions and was eyeing the single scallop left on Neji's plate. He clicked his two chopsticks together menacingly and reached over the table, ready to claim his prize. Pausing a second to wink at Hinata was his downfall, though. The moment Naruto turned around, he noticed it was gone.

Neji chewed thoughtfully and swallowed.

"Too much ginger," he commented, eyes narrowing at Naruto's outstretched hand and chopsticks.

The exuberant and underhand blond was saved by the next course. Tenten was much less relieved as the next course meant Uchimura the pervert was back.

It was going to be a long night…

* * *

Hinata turned to see a much distraught Naruto massaging his stomach. He'd eaten too much good food. Again.

"We should probably get going, it's kind of late," Tenten murmured after unabashedly licking the last gooey bits of chocolate mochi from her fingers. She was full too.

Uchimura, who had been lurking in the wings waiting, stepped out and bid them a good night, wishing them a swift return.

_Yeah, sure. Pervert._

A blast of cool night air hit them and Tenten shivered, despite the several layers of clothing she had on. She automatically leaned closer to Neji's body heat and was happily surprised when he simply looped an arm around her shoulders. Heavy from a large meal, she found herself slightly hazy. Right now would be the perfect time for a hot drink, but all the vendors were gone from Konoha's streets. She had forgotten her wallet as well in the excitement of preparing.

They walked towards the housing districts in comfortable silence, immersed in other thoughts. She was already on her door step and fumbling for keys, before realizing Neji had followed her home.

Perfect Neji. Gentleman Neji. What to say to him?

"Thanks, but you didn't really have to come."

The door clicked open and she placed a chakra filled palm against it, deactivating the variety of traps she had set as a standard shinobi precaution.

Neji, pale cheeks tinged pink from the cold, nodded.

"Good night. I really enjoyed tonight's dinner."

"You enjoyed that lecher's eyes on you for half the time we were there?" he shot back in a typical, cynical, Neji-like way.

And why was he still angry, again?

"Nah, I'll kill him tomorrow," she finished lightly before deciding to hug him. One kiss for the evening was enough.

For some odd reason, Neji felt himself smiling as he wrapped two arms around his team mate, enjoying the smell of her hair. It wasn't like Tenten hadn't hugged him before.

She smelled of cacao.

* * *

Drop a review pretty please! Since I have not really checked back on the grammar and spelling, there are probably typos lurking (like Uchimura) in the dark. Please alert me to them so that I may shoo them out of this story.

*squashes the escaping pervert under foot*


	5. Chapter 5: Why We Need Chocolate

Neji needed time to think and he needed it now. His arrangement with Tenten was affecting daily life. He was being too nice too much. When Tsunade came up with a B-rank escort mission to Stone, he jumped and packed his bags to leave despite the fact that B-ranks were below his usual standard.

Leaving Tenten very alone, very suddenly.

Neji was never an emotional person. She knew that. She knew him better than anyone, except perhaps Lee. She knew he hated fake crab in sushi rolls and had made sure to never roll with the faux seafood again. She knew that he had actually fallen out of a tree once, though Lee and hugging had been involved to some extent in the incident. She knew so many things that could embarrass him by showing the public his personal hygiene paranoia and demand for quality. He wasn't cruel either, though it seemed like that was his nature.

Then why, if Neji knew _she_ hated being left out, had he left without telling _her _specifically? The dynamic duo had also left on an escort a few days earlier, leaving Tenten to fire weapons at targets.

Alone.

Finding a life without her at-odds team mates dreary and unsatisfactory, she had withdrawn to her house again. No amount of coaxing from Sakura or Ino to go shopping or train with them got her out of the house. She wasn't much of a shopper (demonstrated by how small her closet was). Besides, Tenten knew next to nothing about healing techniques the two other kunoichi were immersed in. Her idea of training wasn't to save lives, it was to end them.

A polite knock sounded against her third door of the year and she rose from the cushions on her sofa to answer the door.

Wait a minute…

The last time that she had heard THAT kind of knock was when a server had come from the Thousand Cranes. Maybe, she shouldn't open the door. If that pervert was back to ask something, she was going to kill him. She had after all been trained in killing.

Grumbling at her lack of foresight in getting a peephole, Tenten opened the door.

It was time to put her training to good use. She was going to rearrange that bastard's face and stuff it where he smelled the worse.

Uchimura smiled in that sleazy kind of way and gave her a lazy once-over. Tenten's slightly damaged tank top and shorts were not covering nearly enough skin.

"What?" she spat out several minutes later, noticing that he also had a package with him.

"It's good to see you Tenten-san, our restaurant always appreciates customer comments and I've come to deliver you a completely optional survey. Should you choose to complete it, simply leave it out on your doorstep. I will come pick it up by tomorrow."

She snatched the scroll from his hands and slammed the door shut in front of Uchimura's all-knowing smirk.

Yeah, she would drop them a comment.

Really, she should have just gone with Sakura and Ino. It never hurt to gain some extra knowledge.

How ironic it was that the topics Tsunade would be covering for her two friends included detecting poisons and unwanted substances. If only she had gone. Then, perhaps Tenten would have caught the sweetly-scented purple ink the survey was written in.

* * *

"Geez, Tenten's been really depressed lately. I mean, I thought they were just dating to save Neji from his uncle."

"Oh come on, doesn't that big forehead of yours serve for anything else than advertising? They are _so _in love, at least Tenten is. Come to think of it, I think we should just go drag her out of that house she's locked herself in. She needs to open her eyes and consider other opportunities! Plenty of boys to go around!" Ino laughed and steered her pink-haired friend towards Tenten's house.

Sakura paused and sniffed the air hesitantly, immediately activating chakra to heighten her sense of smell. She shoved Ino back, a serious look on her face. Ino, who had been blundering along happily, frowned and was about to ask what her best friend's problem was when she saw Sakura pull out a face mask.

"Stay here, I smell poison. You'll get killed if you try to follow me in. And your standard issue of face mask isn't enough; I actually had to stitch this one together on my own." She flexed a single gloved hand and formed several seals. A glowing hexagon appeared around Tenten's house.

Ino knew what that was. Medics only rarely used it to contain airborne particles to stop the spread of contaminated air as it was an extremely draining technique to use. She watched as her friend walked through the green dome that had formed. This was really bad. She was going to alert the Godaime. Trusting to Sakura's top notch skills, Ino turned and ran. She hadn't spent weeks toning her legs in front of Chouji's unstoppably fast Meat Tank Technique for nothing. Well, okay, Shikamaru had been watching her.

Sakura attached an exploding tag to a nearby stone and aimed it at the door, checking her watch as Tenten's traps imploded.

Five minutes tops to safely retrieve Tenten. She had only ever held the shield safely for a quarter of an hour and extra time was needed to decontaminate herself and Tenten and drag Ino and passersby into supplying the greedy jutsu with the necessary energies. After the dust had cleared around the newly replaced door, Sakura bounded in, heading up the stairs immediately and forcing open the door with a fist.

Two minutes.

Tenten was sitting in her chair looking remarkably normal, despite portraying a deep slouch. Looks were deceiving when it came to poisons based on heavy metals, though. They worked slowly to destroy their victims from the inside out. Sakura cursed, noticing the slight blueness of Tenten's skin. Her heart was giving out slowly, but surely. Every breath was drawing more of the poison into her. Picking Tenten up and slinging her over a shoulder, Sakura broke the glass of the window with a couple of exploding tags and jumped out.

One minute.

Ino, had meanwhile, somehow attracted Tsunade and her team members to the scene with her incoherent tears. They spread out under the Godaime's barked orders and pressed their palms against the slowly fading shield, replenishing it with blue green chakra. Ino had again run off to flag other nearby teams.

"Okay, ready?" Tsunade's chakra shifted as runes spidered across the translucent globe. Sakura detected the change immediately and placed a gloved hand down on the ground to aid them. They were going to purify the air and draw the particles to a self-sealing jar.

The slight hiss of the jar filling slowly halted to nothing. The only poison left was contained in Tenten's blood and would stay there until they mixed an antidote.

* * *

Far away in Stone, Neji began having second thoughts about what he had done. He really should have told Tenten. She hated being left out and he knew it. He would apologize to her when he came home. She would understand.

Tenten had always understood, hadn't she? She had even taken care to never roll sushi with fake crab ever again when he'd frowned after biting into a lunch that she had made. Tenten always packed food for the missions. Lee and Gai's diets both consisted of the Curry of Life, Soup of Life, and Tea of Life. That was too much Life for him to handle. Neji had never had to cook anything besides the occasional fish.

Yes, Tenten knew.

Conscience smiled, he was guiding Neji to the right way. The path to apology was cut short as Ego took over and brought up his pride. The two proceeded to beat each other senseless and leave Neji to sort out his thoughts alone.

Very alone, very suddenly.

Was he missing her?

* * *

"No way!"

"Yes."

"Shishou, no one's anywhere near Stone. I tried cultivating it, but nothing went right. They just shriveled and died! We don't have the herbs and molecular synthesizing would take even longer to figure out. Tenten's not looking very good as it is. There's got to be some antidote left, right?"

"Neji's in Stone, he could pick up the necessary plants."

"Tsunade-sama, you seem to be forgetting the fact that those plants are strictly limited to higher elevations, where rogue and guerilla ninjas and thugs like to hang out. It is, after all, full of food and water. And places to ambush passersby! He may be one of the strongest ninja we have, but odds are he'll never find it and return with it in good enough shape for us to use!"

The Fifth Hokage was already scribbling out a note and shooing her away to summon Ino, who had long ago signed a contract with sparrows. They had become Konoha's preferred method of safely delivering messages. She had to trust in the ANBU captain's abilities. Neji, in his entire history of missions, had never failed.

Sakura harrumphed and dragged a snoozing Ino from behind the counter of Yamanaka Flowers. Being a top medic, she was immediately in tune to the slightest signs of contamination showing up in the fiery blonde's system. Sakura had developed immunity to several different powders and potions she encountered with her work and was perfectly fine. Ino, however, was less fortunate. If Neji didn't hurry up, Ino would end up compromising her dream life of a kunoichi. Her lungs would lose the capacity they once had and several muscles and nerves could be damaged irreversibly.

She hoped, for Tenten and Ino's sake, that Neji was as great as his fan girls praised him as.

* * *

Neji was settling down for another night of watch duty with the stupid bureaucrats he had spent days watching over. A sparrow trilled from one of the top branches of the tree he was leaning on.

What did Tsunade want now?

He held out a single commanding finger and tore the note off in frustration once the bird had landed; disturbing one of Ino's supposedly "cute" flying tennis balls. He had to mentally pause and count to ten before opening the piece of paper and trying to decipher Tsunade's writing. Apparently, this was urgent. The Godaime may have been a good-for-nothing drunk gambler, but she had developed easily read writing to ease the eyes of Konoha ninja.

He folded the paper back together and slipped it in his backpack. As ANBU captain of one of Konoha's best teams, Neji was shocked.

He had a horrible mission assignment: take care of the client as quickly as possible, search some random mountain for yellow flowers while matching them based on one of Sakura's descriptions and a colored sketch, bring them home alive in a water bottle, and weave his way through rogue territory with the precious cargo.

All this, while knowing Tenten's favorite katana was gathering dust.

Lee let go of Gai after an embarrassingly long hug for finishing first and looked around suspiciously, causing the caterpillars above his eyes to twitch and wiggle.

Where was Tenten?

Tenten was always there to greet him and would have told him if she had a mission.

Gai's great caterpillars above his eyes twitched and wiggled too.

Where was Tenten?

He leaned over and spoke softly with Hayate, who happened to be on gate duty this Wednesday. His happy demeanor dropped almost immediately and he took off in the direction towards the hospital, at top speed. Lee dutifully followed at a run, apologizing to Hayate for the dust clouds in his wake.

Lee, slightly puzzled, managed just barely to focus on the present and stop himself from mowing into his sensei. They were standing outside of a very familiar place.

The hospital.

So, Tenten was sick. Had she accidentally stabbed herself or something?

"No, no. It's not as easy as that," Sakura explained in as calm and soothing a voice as she could. Lee would not like what was behind door two in Ward C.

C-2 appeared in his Lee's field of vision, its sickly white letters missing the hyphen on most other doors. He opened the door and bounded in, hoping to shake his team mate up and have her do a couple of laps to with him while he caught up to the latest news. His hands were on her shoulders when he realized something was wrong.

A loud and painful smack echoed in the quiet room as Sakura slapped Lee's hands off her patient's shoulders.

"You idiot! You just sped up her heart rate, now the poison will spread even faster!" Sakura hissed out as she checked the green curve of Tenten's heart beat. She swallowed her ire and tried to explain to the two green exercise junkies what had happened.

"Okay, you can have some alone time, but don't excite her too much. We have to keep everything stable and slow as possible. She won't respond either as we had to place her into an induced coma."

Lee sat down and plucked a single calloused hand into his bandaged ones and bent his head over it. Gai left the room to give his students some silence and he returned home. He would have to trust in Neji.

Sakura entered at the end of her shift to find Lee curled up in a chair, still insistently holding Tenten's hand and stroking it. She silently led him out and started going through hospital protocol. While switching IVs, she noticed several dark chunks of chocolate sitting in a Tupperware container. No doubt from Hinata.

Tenten's favorite.

She could tell just by the smell. And the bittersweet flavor too.

* * *

Neji bit thoughtfully into a hunk of chocolate. He had taken to bringing it on missions after hearing Tenten recite all its medicinal properties to Lee and trying to convince Gai it was the Sweet of Life. He had never liked the bitter ones she had and instead opted for the higher calorie milk version.

He took another bite and let it melt in his mouth while studying the map that had been carefully detailed by Sakura. He had tried out two of the locations and only managed to find several small and useless sprouts. He was going to have to tackle the unsavory task of navigating a series of cataracts and searching mountain springs.

He finished the chocolate and began picking his way through the terrain, occasionally activating Byakugan to scan his surroundings for inhospitable hosts. A small of group of thugs up ahead, he could avoid them. Two low level ninja beyond them.

Then, a gigantic flare of chakra.

Definitely avoid them.

Neji blinked, deactivating the doujutsu to conserve chakra. He jumped into the trees and embarked upon a punishing climb in elevation. He finished a fifth chocolate bar as he slowed down at the sound of falling water. He bent and methodically scanned the landscape for a patch of gold.

Right there, in front of a deceptively short ninja. His chakra seemed familiar and then it hit him…

He had automatically assumed that the gigantic flare of chakra was from several bodies. Neji had been wrong, too wrapped up in his thoughts to detect the clarity of the chakra he had sensed.

It had belonged to one person only.

This person who was slowly digging a heel into the delicate blossoms.

"Are you here for them too?"

"Many people come here for them, usually in teams. Aren't you the arrogant idiot to come all alone? No back up in the wings?"

"Are you scared, Hyuuga Neji?"

Neji's face remained impassive as he scanned his surroundings. A few more chakra signatures popped up in the distance, and they were closing fast. Apparently, this guy wasn't alone, definitely not something to be underestimated. How could he have missed them? He had known his name, perhaps studied his fighting style before and found weak points that Tenten often exploited. Correction, often exploited before she had been poisoned.

"Don't you remember me?"

The man twisted his fingers together, much like he was playing with invisible string. A soft shimmery line appeared in the air as Neji settled into a fighting stance, crunching down several soldier pills to restore his chakra. For some reason, he was feeling oddly drained.

"Kidomaru."

"Smart as always, but are you any stronger?"

"I thought I killed you."

"You didn't," the former Sound ninja ground out; apparently miffed Neji had placed him as another nameless face on the pile of dead people that the prodigy had racked up.

"My apologies, allow me to oblige you this time," Neji replied sarcastically, launching himself towards the ninja. Then he dropped to his knees as the innocuous-seeming yellow pollen in the air took full effect.

"Jiroubu, he was MINE to kill…not yours!" Kidomaru whined, angry at his partner for knocking out the Hyuuga before he could do anything. The fattest member of the original Sound Four smiled evilly and picked up the unmoving Neji. This resulted in a vicious six-armed punch from Kidomaru and the subsequent dropping of Jiroubu's load. The two turned their backs on him as they shuffled further away to fight each other and solve the never-ending quarrel of who was better.

Neither of them noticed the supposedly paralyzed ANBU member reactivating his chakra to unearth several of the golden blossoms and slowly slip them inside a fold of the white robe he wore.

"Still not dead? I can see why you forgot those two. Only pathetic idiots like them wouldn't kill you. I'm not pathetic, so don't expect any mercy," an obviously female voice whispered above him. She placed a single glowing hand over his chest and slowed the rhythm of his heart. Pity that they had to save him for interrogation. She carefully dusted every precious blossom from his front and tossed him to the conjoined twins, Ukon and Sakon. However, Tayuya had missed a single sunshine yellow flash of color in Neji's long, black hair.

The Sound Four were back.

* * *

"State your purpose, Hyuuga," Tayuya cooed mock lovingly.

Their victim remained silent, his mind calm and detached from years of meditation. The pain of long senbon inserted under his nails did not measure in his mind.

Tayuya frowned, traditional torture wasn't going to work. Time for genjutsu, her musical specialty.

Pulling out cheesecloth to polish her flute and adjusting its tuning was something she had always loved. It meant she was going to hurt someone. She tested several notes and adjusted again, giving her team mates time to stuff their ears. After critically eyeing Neji and thinking about the yellow blossoms he had been seeking, she began a song she rarely used.

There was no death or darkness in this one. No, this one was much worse. This one had only failed to kill two times in her entire life.

This one was about love. After all, why else would the cold Hyuuga come seeking cure-all flowers?

In his mind's eye, Neji was kissing some random woman in front of a very still Tenten. Then he was catching the same random woman and letting Tenten crash to her death. Unsatisfaction painted his features when Tenten stood up, looking like the ugliest monster that had ever existed. Revenge gleamed red in her normally chocolate eyes.

She was undoing her buns and hacking off hair, weaving something he couldn't see. Crystalline tears shimmered in her eyes as she beseeched him for salvation. He was consumed wholly by guilt and felt himself flying to her, like a bird. Landing ever so softly on her extended hand.

"Will you be mine forever, Neji-kun?" she hissed in a thousand voices that did not sound like Tenten at all.

"Will."

She was stroking the white feathers of his back.

"You."

She was holding him tightly in her hand, never going to let go.

"Be."

She was tucking his great wings in.

"Mine."

She was cupping him with both hands, trapping him lovingly between her fingers, forming a protective cage.

"Forever."

She was dumping him in a golden brown cage of her hair, the something she was weaving he could not see. It was closing in on him and he could feel the mark tattooed on his brow searing with white-hot pain. His heart was broken then when they had taken him from his father. The great calm he had spent years making was splintering with every note massaging his eardrums.

"Neji-kun," Tenten drawled, swirling a katana through the air, ready to strike him. She raised it teasingly slow and then brought the blade down, singing through the air in delicate trills.

Several inches of perfectly polished chrome sank into her own chest. Sweetly-scented purple blood was oozing out in poisonous rivulets. Her eyes were a dull brown again.

"Break the illusion, Neji."

"Break it and run."

"I'm waiting, Neji."

What nonsense was happening in his mind now? One moment, his team mate wanted him dead. Now, she was telling him her last words.

He blinked and noticed a red-haired woman sprawled at his feet as he stood up, a purple drop winding its way down the flute she held in her hands to kiss the floor. Tenten had kept the promise she had made as a member of Team Gai so long ago. He could hear her voice echoing Gai's cheesy pact he had made them say.

"_Through the darkest of the dark, the hole in your heart, I'll be there."_

"She's dead!" Jiroubu gasped.

"She got to emotionally involved and let the genjutsu control her, stupid girl," Kidoumaru's reasoning mind pieced together. He toed Tayuya with a sandaled foot. Kidoumaru had never been too fond of the flutist.

Neji gathered his chakra in to a single palm to use a forbidden technique he had secretly stolen from the Hiashi's personal collection.

_Joukai Hira no Jutsu (_Palm of Divination Technique).

With a glowing palm, he thrust his arm out. Kidoumaru, Jiroubu, and Ukon and Sakon all smirked at his clumsy airstrike. The cruel smiles on their faces disappeared as they were hit by the quiet force of the bone crushing blow. Neji ground a single foot into Tayuya's cursed flute to make sure no one else could possibly use it ever again. Checked the three ninja to make sure he had definitely killed them. Deciding a little extra paranoia wouldn't hurt, he sliced their bodies open for carrion feeders to feast on.

It was time to go, he had flowers to gather and a Tenten to save.

* * *

Ahem. Sorry that took so long. (:


	6. Chapter 6: Bitter Bite

I'm so sorry this took so long! I was busy. (:

Enjoy!

* * *

Neji mulled over the recent encounter that had shaken him mentally and physically. The Sound Four had obviously known he was coming, had they perhaps been assigned some sort of paid assassination? Who would want him to fail in this mission that was so critical to Tenten's life? He was sure there were better opportunities to target him than now. The prodigy's photographic memory brought up possible suspects and he racked his gifted brains. Lee and Gai would never dare to do such a thing, no matter how high of a price they were offered. He crossed off most shinobi on his list, turning to civilians next.

A single muscle twitched in his calf and he decided to drop from the trees and do a couple of stretches. It was time to water the stupid flowers, anyways. Neji carefully opened his backpack to check on the golden blooms and pulled out a spray bottle of spring water he had collected. After carefully measuring six pumps, he placed the delicate plastic container back inside and sat down.

To avoid stabbing himself (geniuses made mistakes too, he was paranoid), Neji unstrapped the kunai holster from his right thigh and set it in the damp leaves. A simple stretch to touch his toes would do. Not as flexible as Tenten or Lee (who he highly doubted was human in the first place), he let his fingers fall to his ankles and rest there. He let go of the position after mentally counting to ten.

_Eight._

_Nine._

_Tenten._

He blinked in surprise at the lapse of thinking. Tenten? Really, he should ask Tsunade for a check-up. It was not every day that a Hyuuga counted incorrectly to ten.

His overtaxed muscles complained after Neji righted himself and he lowered himself back down. No mistakes allowed was what the Godaime had specified. With no back up, old enemies on his trail, and the effects of some mysterious botanicals running through his veins, he had to stay ready. A single kunai spun around his finger idly and he read the manufacturer's gummed label for the sake of passing time. Waiting for the muscle-relaxers he had crunched down earlier was nerve-wracking.

Tanaka Industries and its cheery motto ("Serving those who serve!") spun around in a circle of déjà vu. Where had that name popped up before?

Aha.

Of course.

The lecher.

Uchimura Tanaka, despite his relative unimportance and unfit existence, was still hovering around the edges of his mind and prodding him with hot stabs of annoyance. The moment he got back was the day that cursed son-of-a—.

Crap.

Neji was slapped in the face by his stupidity. Of all the suspects he had never considered…

The restaurant always had a follow up survey…

Tsunade had said the poison was inhaled and distilled from heavy metals, which usually were used in liquid form…

Newspaper headlines had talked about the controversial developments of biological weapons and other such poisons that had been designed to be odorless, flavorless, and perfect for disguising in everyday liquids such as ink…

Tenten was out of time. Neji knew about those poisons. Someone, after all, had been forced to learn medical techniques to protect the Main House. After a week, the lungs collapsed (if not earlier). He could already hear the beep-beep of a ventilator inflating his team mate's chest cavity for her.

* * *

Sakura scrubbed down next to her mentor and plucked out several long plastic gloves. Two crisp snaps of plastic against skin echoed in the room. Running over the statistics of her patient quickly, she prepared for the worse.

"Scalpel," Tsunade demanded and Sakura automatically passed the blade to her teacher. They had been forced to bypass Tenten's hideously swollen tongue and were now slicing across her neck into her windpipe. A way to buy more time.

Damn it, where was that white-eyed boyfriend of hers? If he didn't hurry up, Tenten wouldn't make it. Ino might also need to undergo such a drastic procedure later on. She was going to kick his ass.

Hell, she'd kick his ass two times—once for Tenten, once for Ino.

And another time for good measure. One more for being a cynical bastard, worse than Sasuke at times. One more time because Neji looked like he—

"Forceps," Tsunade snapped as she handed the scalpel back to Sakura. A quick inspection of the slowly oozing dark blood in Tenten's veins revealed the poisons work. Cells were dying and clotting together ever so slowly.

As her shishou cleaned up Konoha's steel dragon, Sakura remembered just what this operation was for.

Buying more time. How much could they buy before supplies ran out?

* * *

Neji sped on, checking the map he had attached to his water bottle; the same one Tenten had drunk from just a few days ago. A muscle twitched insistently in his calf again and he ignored it.

When the twitching turned into a painful seizing of the muscles, he stopped and wasted precious chakra reserves to soothe himself. The ANBU member contemplated the option of dropping somewhere and taking a quick nap. It was dark and he was near out of chakra from the furious pace he had dictated.

Normally, he would have. But today, Neji just gritted his teeth and continued on. He could only hope he got there in time.

Tenten was strong and he knew it. But, he couldn't seem to put hope in it.

* * *

Lee's fingers drummed against the arm of an oak chair in Konoha Hospital's lobby. The operation to ease his team mate's breathing was taking slightly longer than he expected. Now was when Lee had doubts. If life was so wonderfully full of spring, why would spring involve taking Tenten? He had asked his sensei once, but only received a downtrodden face and mumbled answer.

"I don't know," Gai had been forced to admit. Why was it that Tenten had been placed on the chopping block? And just after starting her first, shy relationship! With Hyuuga Neji! This was supposed to be time for them to sit in parks savoring sushi or… or…now that he thought about it, Neji probably wouldn't stand for anything but training.

A flash of pink appeared in Lee's vision and he looked up. Sakura was making her way to him solemnly, ignoring a ditsy old lady's requests. She sat down and put a single warm hand on top of his.

"The operation was a success."

"But?"

"Does there have to be a 'but'?"

"That means there is a 'but', then?"

"There is."

She looked away for a second, mentally preparing herself for Lee's emotional breakdown. Sakura had carefully set her face to neutrally calm and turned around to deliver the bad news.

"We were able to obtain samples of her blood and tissues of the throat. Things aren't very good. A further examination in the lab has revealed a massive loss in functional red blood cells. It looks like they've been put in a blender. All the little pieces are starting to clot up and block the remaining good ones from reaching their destinations. Tenten, to put it simply, is not getting the oxygen she needs."

Lee nodded.

"Her organ systems are starting to fail, her kidneys will be next. You can't visit her in an unstable state like now."

Lee nodded again.

"That's all we can tell you."

"How much time is there left?" he queried, not wanting to know the answer.

The same answer Gai had given him.

"I don't know."

Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast removed his hands from hers and thanked her stiffly. With mournfully long, slow strides, Lee exited. This was worse than Sakura had been expecting: no tears, no yelling, no shaking, no nothing. It scared the crap out of her. One Neji on Team Gai was enough. Two was too much.

And if he didn't come back.

If he couldn't come back.

If he didn't make it.

No Neji at all was appalling. No Tenten. A missing tomboy during slumber parties and birthdays. No one to drag shopping when Ino was flat out broke, Hinata busy, and the boys bored of 'girly activities'.

She hurried off to check on Tenten and help herself to some of Hinata's generous heaps of chocolate—the closest thing to the Tenten she had known. It was a strange girl who slept now, slightly emaciated, with spidery blue veins under a slowly whitening skin.

* * *

Uchimura Tanaka's eyebrows wiggled up and down in glee so great they rivaled Lee's and perhaps, just perhaps, Gai's. The girl he had been observing since the crack of dawn was waking up with the first stirrings of consciousness. Pen touched paper as he scribbled down some observations, the shutter of a camera lens clicking away at seven frames a second. The injection site of his father's latest line of paralytics was blushing a slight red. She should've been completely immobilized by now.

Scratch that, Uchimura had judged too soon. A frantic look was easily spotted in her eyes as she fumbled with the drawstrings of her sleepwear. Her fingers fell limp and a dull ache consumed everything. Motor neurons fired to no avail and not a single muscle budged to her mental commands. Ami never knew what hit her.

A cough crackled through the room as loud as thunder and the pervert swiveled around, annoyed that he had to miss the part of his show he liked best, where prey was conquered.

"Tanaka-san, they failed."

"Then hire more, you idiot! Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"But, sir, the target is most likely hours away. There is no time to schedule an attack."

"Then, move to plan B! Do I have to spell it out for you, my darling?"

He stood and stretched. People-watching was one of his favorite activities, but tomorrow was a big day. He'd love to see the great Hyuuga Neji taste defeat and watch as his only hope, literally, withered.

Neji rushed past the border at Fire Country, knowing the sentinels would recognize his chakra and not need to stop him. Several heads turned to follow his speeding form. Seeing shinobi in a hurry was exciting. Seeing ice cubes in a hurry was plain awesome.

"Oi, what's got the Hyuuga in such a hurry?" one of them drawled lazily, "If I didn't know better, I'd say he was running away from something."

"Running away? Awww, is the wittle Neji scared of us? I know my partner here, Ju, is ugly; but me? I take that as an insult."

The group of chuunin guffawed in idiotic harmony before suddenly shutting up. A glance back revealed them standing at attention in front of the jounin in charge.

"Neji is a friend of mine and I do expect you guys to treat him well," the green jump suit said. The bowl cut nodded up and down like a bobble head doll.

Never in his life had Neji been happier to see Lee and his very great and equally green spandex suit. Another couple of hours and he would be home.

"Home is where the heart is," Tenten used to preach to their frazzled nerves on long missions that cut them off from Konoha.

And right now, a portion of his heart was dying on a forsaken bed in Ward C, Room number 2, of the Konoha General Hospital.

* * *

Again, sorry for the long _long _**LONG** delay in posting. (:

I'll see if I can post sooner next time. Maybe even post another little NejiTen piece I'm working on. And please read and review.


	7. Chapter 7: Proper Packaging

Uchimura Tanaka cackled in glee, rubbing his hands together like the proper perverted villain he was. The best part about his plan was the fact that he wouldn't even have to do anything for the next step.

He smiled indulgently at his computer monitor, which was currently displaying a ten day weather forecast. This was falling into place much too well. The complications he had painstakingly planned for were not appearing.

Heroic boyfriend successfully finds flowers.

Heroic boyfriend successfully, single-handedly defends flowers from others.

Heroic boyfriend successfully, single-handedly, _heroically _gives flowers to girlfriend. Only, to see them wilt in front of his eyes.

And the only thing anyone could blame would not be Uchimura Tanaka. Oh no! It would be a common, everyday occurrence that people blamed very often.

The weather of Konoha was going to be appropriately ironic for Uchimura's scheduled doomsday: bright and sunny tomorrow with no clouds and a light, warm breeze from the southwest at approximately five miles per hour. This, of course, had to be followed in the afternoon by a surprise thunderstorm that would last the rest of the day. Tanaka Industries' lab instruments had reported that a horrible blast of desert winds from Suna come rather fortuitously. All of this was making its own merry way over, right on the heels of a certain Hyuuga Neji.

* * *

Neji would have grumbled in annoyance at the deliciously sunny weather Fire Country was experiencing, but he was a perfect, stoic Hyuuga and such things would not befit his station. Still, there was something cloyingly sweet about the weather. It was much too perfect. The sun was warming his back. The birds were chirping.

The wind was blowing through his gorgeous, gorgeous hair with the breakneck speed of his traveling.

No, things were too perfect for Neji. Neji, who had only recently decided that a little discord was welcome. That exceptions could be made. Neji decided that he did not like this perfect weather at all, not at all. And then, a little thought begin niggling at the back of his genius mind. Something about this perfect day was off. Doing a quick couple of mental calculations, Neji reminded himself that it was the traditional time of year for scorching Suna winds to sweep through Konoha and Fire Country.

That could only mean one really, really bad thing was about to happen. Fire Country was about to be on the receiving end of one of the summer heat waves it was famous for.

"Think of a woman on PMS. Deprived of her chocolate," Tenten had said when they were caught outside during training, forced to trudge to Ichiraku for shelter (Lee turned up his nose at the un-youthful unhealthiness), confronted by an exuberant Maito Gai in the midst of a ramen-eating competition with an unwilling Kakashi (who, by the way, was not eating any ramen at all), and ordered out to train some more in this brilliant, _blossoming _opportunity by their oh-so-deranged sensei. But, thinking of that memory hurt too much.

Neji cut it off quickly and continued his running. He told himself that Tenten would be up and about soon enough. She would be back in the sun, sparring like always, within a week and he would be able to sort out what exactly the odd vision of Tenten during the confrontation with the Sound Four had meant.

The birds stopped chirping. Perhaps it was too hot.

To the ordinary observer, Hyuuga Neji did not exist. You blinked and the mirage of white had already passed, leaving the heavy dullness that exists only in the steps of a person who has discovered many regrets and even less time to remedy them in.

It started to really heat up. He only hoped the sun-colored petals would stay in their proper place, nestled next to his water bottle and carefully covered from the sun with (what do you know?) a dark brown paper that had once protected his chocolate from melting. These fancy dark chocolate bars had to have the proper packaging and Tenten's lecturing voice filled his head.

Neji was still a good day's journey from home.

* * *

Haruno Sakura looked out at the dismally perfect blue sky that peered in through room C-2. This was bad news for Tenten, whose chest no longer rose and fell of her own accord. Hot weather and dehydration could wipe out even the most skilled ANBU operative.

A morbid thought crossed Sakura's mind.

This would be the first time she lost a patient in her career as medic nin. She really hoped Neji would hurry up.

* * *

With a final burst of chakra, Neji slid past Izumo and Kotetsu (both on guard duty at the gate) and began his final stage of the journey, hopping from roof to roof, searching with his keen eyes for the bleached white façade of the Konoha General Hospital. Another few minutes and Neji found himself in the lobby. His head swiveled right, then left, in search of the hospital's stairs. Promptly discovering them, he took them two at a time, never pausing until he was on the third floor.

A flash of pink and white swam past his peripheral vision and he detoured sharply to the left.

"Sakura-san!" Neji called in a sharp tone, fingers already reaching for the zipper on his pack.

The pink-haired medic in question ground to a halt for a mere half-second before gesturing Neji towards her. In minutes, Sakura was in the Ward C laboratory. Her nimble fingers reached out for various bottles of medicine and a few quick stirs of the already half-made antidote ensured her the ingredients were still fresh.

"The flowers?" she queried distractedly, holding out one hand expectantly. Neji placed the plastic container in the medic's waiting hand and peeled back the cool brown papers cocooning it. Sakura unscrewed it and hoped desperately for fresh, golden blooms to great her eyes.

She was not disappointed.

The flowers were a little worse for wear and the hot weather had certainly dried out the leaves, but the delicate polymers they needed would still be twisted in the proper positions, a lock-and-key mechanism just suited for removing this particular poison. A few more minutes of careful pressing and she'd have enough essence to cure Tenten and Ino.

* * *

Somewhere in Tanaka Laboratories, Uchimura Tanaka squealed in displeased anger. His father's prized weather instruments had been wrong! There was supposed to be a thunderstorm rolling in this afternoon, a thunderstorm that would drop temperatures low enough and raise humidity high enough to destroy the Hyuuga's precious little bouquet.

Those damn perfect Hyuugas. First, they had turned down the weapons contract with his father's company, stating something along the lines of unreliable performance over longer distance throws. Apparently, some upstart weapons mistress had tested them and reported terrible accuracy in long-range fighting. It wasn't even like the Hyuugas needed long-range weapons! But that snotty branch house member Hyuuga Neji had adamantly refused on the clan's behalf, and Tanaka Industries was now stuck with (literally) tons of inventory they could not move. Profits were disappearing as other clans switched brands and assembly lines stalled over the lack of demand.

Tanaka swore in every language he knew. He then proceeded to swear some more. Now out of new or innovative expletives, he kicked a nearby refrigerator and then proceeded to swear even more at the pain in his big toe.

He'd planned everything! He'd worked on a perfect schedule with so many back-up plans there couldn't possibly be any exceptions he'd forgotten. No exceptions! None at all!

* * *

It was about a day after the antidote had been administered intravenously, about two after Neji had returned home, and about a week after Tenten had been poisoned. Uchimura Tanaka, unlike the majority of Konoha, did not know this fact. In fact, Neji had personally made sure the pervert would remain unknowing and unconscious for the next few days or, preferably, weeks.

Tenten, who had recently been taken off of life support, had woken to find two slumbering team mates and a snoring, drooling, altogether unattractive Maito Gai by her bedside. A box of what she assumed had once been chocolate sat open in Lee's bandaged hands.

"Leeeeeeeeeee, Gaiiiiiiiiii…" she attempted to squeak out past the still-healing mess her recent tracheotomy had made of her throat.

She received nothing but a prolonged snore from Gai. Alas, the (eternally, _blossoming-ly_) dynamic duo had always been heavy sleepers. Time to try option number two.

Deciding to give her aching throat a rest, she reached out for Neji with her left hand. And, suffering from coordination issues due to the poison, Tenten managed to miss Neji's shoulder and heartily slap her Hyuuga boyfriend on the cheek. He reflexively caught her wrist in a firm grip before blinking awake. Tenten was looking very expectantly at him with her chocolate eyes.

"You're awake," came out in an uncharacteristically dumb voice. The prodigy cleared his throat and managed a more acceptably reserved, "You're awake."

She nodded.

"How do you feel?"

"Thirsty." Tenten gave a slight wince at the way her voice grated. Despite the gruff and gravelly tone of her declaration, Neji felt the tension that had pervaded his body for a long, tiresome week melt. He carefully folded her arm back against the white sheets and got up to pour a glass of water. Remembering the cheek slap from earlier and Tsunade's mention about lack of coordination as a result of the poison and coma, he brought the cup to her lips and obligingly tilted it. It was finished in seconds.

"You are recovered? Everything has returned to normal?" Neji queried a second time.

"Except for one thing."

He looked alarmed. If Tenten was going to die on him after everything they had been through (Gai, Lee, training, Gai, curry of life, Gai, his uncle, Gai, Lee, a birthday gift of a forest green spandex suit from aforementioned spandex-clad terrors, Gai, that terrible picture Lee had taken of him in the hot springs, the ensuing chaos in Konoha's female population, etc.), then…

"What is wrong?" he asked.

Tenten smiled and Neji had the vague feeling it was at his expense. She shook her head and tapped the cup with a finger. Neji refilled it and returned to the bed. This time he withheld the cup from her.

"What is it?" A crease formed between his brows and Tenten could feel the heartache at seeing such an endearingly familiar facet of his personality.

"Nothing." Tenten's hand curled weakly around his as she attempted to pry the cup from his grasp.

The endearing crease became more pronounced and Neji let go of the cup (but not before assuring himself of Tenten's firm grasp upon its ridged surface), white eyes intent with something that Tenten could only label as even more endearing.

"Tell me," he demanded.

"Nothing. You were just smiling." She drank greedily from the cup for lack of anything else to do.

This perplexed the Hyuuga genius far more than it should have. He was smiling? And so what if he had been? What exactly was wrong with smiling? Perhaps it was not fitting of his station?

"Should I frown?"

Hyuuga Neji then proceeded to frown.

"No. Just looks odd on Hyuugas. Belongs on Gai. Lee. But, by all means, keep smiling."

He smirked, but it had a touch or softness she hadn't seen before.

"Anything for my official girlfriend."

"And as your official girlfriend, especially one who's just come back from a near death experience, I declare that it's cute enough to shame a puppy and you should do it more often," Tenten commented sarcastically, noting Neji's suddenly blank face with a smug smirk of her own. For someone just out of a coma, Tenten's alacrity in wiping that particular smug smirk off his face was still as sharp as ever.

"I will not smile anymore."

Lee gave a thunderous snort and woke himself up with the sheer amount of decibels he had created. Gai echoed with a thunderous snort and suddenly decided to join (interrupt) the odd little reunion with something like this:

"TENTEN SPEAKS! I PLEDGE A THOUSAND LAPS OF KONOHA IN MY STUDENT'S YOUTHFUL HONOR. OH, JOYOUSLY YOUTHFUL DAY! THE WORLD IS, ONCE MORE, RIGHTEOUS AGAIN!"

The brown-haired, brown-eyed kunoichi closed her eyes and leaned back into the pillows, calmly waiting for the end of Gai's loud declaration. The short conversation she had managed with Neji had taxed her and Tenten decided to sleep some more. When she woke up, though, it would certainly be nice to have some chocolate next to her.

"Neji?" she asked, "Could you get me some chocolate? The…"

"Dark chocolate ones with the brown paper wrapping. 76% cacao. Imported from Stone," Neji ticked off dutifully. Tenten smiled at the well-memorized spiel and Lee's triumphant shout concerning youth and obtaining chocolate. She felt a squeeze of her hand and opened one eye to find Neji smiling again. He promised to stay by her bedside while Gai went to supervise Lee, who was not known for his shopping skills. And with no more cares or worries, Tenten fell asleep.

* * *

Do review!


	8. Chapter 8: Fun With Fondue

Sorry for being so late in the updates! School just finished a couple weeks ago!

* * *

"DEAREST TENTEN," Gai boomed in his favorite declaratory tones.

"DEAREST TENTEN," echoed Lee in _his_ favorite declaratory tones. Both spandex-clad monstrosities directed pointed glances at Neji. Neji cleared his throat and chose to offer a more reserved greeting instead.

"Good morning." calmly joined the chorus of wake-up calls Tenten's eardrums had recently been berated with. With a fair amount of snark in her own voice, Tenten quickly quipped a reply.

"Dearest teammates, for what do I owe the pleasure of your wake-up call?"

"You won't believe it, Tenten," gushed an ecstatic Lee.

"I won't believe what?"

"Gai-sensei is going to treat us out to dinner at a fancy place tonight and then we're going to have your favorite desserts! All in celebration of your return to normalcy and youth!"

Responding to Tenten's still quizzical expression, Neji quietly clarified that Tenten's release form the hospital would mark a special occasion to be honored by chocolate fondue of the most luxurious kind. It was a good thing that Gai earned various teaching stipends and hermetically squirreled these funds away for rainy days because Famous Fondue's prices were not something to scoff at. Even exorbitant ANBU pay for A and S-Class missions would be sorely pressed to fund an entire night in Konohakagure's upper-end dining establishments. OK, that wasn't entirely true considering Neji's squirrel-some habits; he was just a miser unwilling to pay for fondue. Especially if the fearsome fondue foodie named Tenten was racking up his bills.

Noting the excited gleam rising in Tenten's eyes, Neji became doubly thankful that Gai's wallet would be the empty one tonight, not his.

* * *

"WHY, TENTEN! FOR SOMEONE SO RECENTLY RECOVERED, YOUR APPETITE IS AMAZINGLY YOUTHFUL!" Gai spoke in a congratulatory tone as Tenten wolfed down an enormous…well, Neji wasn't quite sure what it was anymore.

Swallowing past an excruciatingly large lump of accumulated egg, microgreens, fancy bread, and Famous Fondue's secret orange sauce, Tenten ignored Gai in favor of pouring herself more tea. Lee gave Tenten a comically affectionate slap on the back and nearly earned himself a new article of modern art courtesy of Tenten's masticated dinner. With another difficult swallow, his teammate managed to empty her cheeks of dinner, take a healthy swig of tea, and pound the chewing Lee's back in return. Fortunately for Neji, whose shirt would be in the prime range of Lee's upchuck, Lee seemed mercifully unaffected by it.

"Lee, how many times do I have to tell you to wait until a person is finished eating before interrupting in any way, shape, or form? And pull your punches (no matter how affectionate the intent!) when dealing with your poor, sick teammate."

The timely arrival of a waiter with a fondue platter saved Lee from further castigation. The mixed perfumes of fresh fruits wafted lazily across the table: the sweetness of summer's choicest strawberries, the dark tang of maroon cherries complete with stems for ease of dipping, the soft scent of half-ripe bananas, the crisp signature of golden apples, other indecipherable smells. The waiter smoothly delivered the healthy serving of fruits and sweets along with four fondue forks. A scant few moments later, the glorious chocolate arrived. With a gentle click, the heater flamed into life and permeated the small booth with warmth.

Tenten, sickness or not, rapidly dove in, speared an unsuspecting pineapple, plunged it into the dark brown recesses of the bowl, and watched in awe as it emerged from its chocolate submersion. Leaning forward in a manner not unlike a great white shark, she stuck her tongue out and caught the delectable fruit in one fell swoop. Gai, Lee, and Neji waited the requisite ten seconds for her to swallow and approve before digging in for themselves. Slice after wedge after piece disappeared into the bowl, reappearing for a scant few moments only to disappear into their mouths and stomachs. The fondue plate was dutifully pilfered of its products in no time at all. Team 10 had always held the reputable reputation of Konohagakure Sakura Festival Eating Champions and this fondue dessert was no match.

Seeing that a single fat sesame dumpling remained in the try-our-new-product portion of the platter, all members of Team 10 grasped the hilts of their forks and swept into the final melee. Neji emerged victorious from the squabble, leisurely lowered the last sweet into the cooling chocolate, closed his eyes, leaned forth, and prepared to consume the pitiful creature once and for all.

Halfway to Neji's mouth, Tenten did an incredible thing. Elbowing an equally eager Lee aside, she sealed her lips to the decorated dumpling and ferociously chomped down. Neji, unfortunately, completed the exact same action.

And for the second time in a month, the two found themselves lip locked.

"WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO KISS," Gai boomed in his most annoying, congratulatory tone. Every single head in Famous Fondue swiveled to Team 10; every single eye in Famous Fondue witnessed the scandalous smooch (and more than a few welled in fangirl tears of despair).

"Leggo," Tenten growled between closed teeth. Whosoever dared to interrupt her enjoyment of chocolate and sesame dumplings (her favorite food, as she had declared on Wikipedia) would suffer.

"Nroo," repudiated Neji. Whosoever had the nerve to kiss him twice in a month certainly did not deserve _his _rightfully won, chocolate-dunked dumpling.

With a decisive jolt forward, Tenten firmly sealed her lips against his, expertly swept her tongue across his mouth to lick up the chocolate before biting off a good portion of the dumpling She removed herself to a quiet corner to chew noisily in ecstasy. Let it be known that Neji was, to say the least, slightly miffed as receiving the losing end of the battle (dumpling?). Hyuugas did not lose and Hyuuga Neji certainly did not lose.

"That was such a blossoming demonstration of romance!" cried Lee, running off into the sunset with twin tracks of tears streaking down his cheeks.

"SUCH A BEAUTIFUL ROMANCE!" chorused Gai, conveniently running off into the sunset as well, thereby avoiding the hovering waiter with an enormous Famous Fondue check in hand. Now thoroughly inured to the abusive financial relationship the two Green Beasts of Konoha foisted upon him every communal meal, Neji sighed. He paid for the exorbitant meal, removed Tenten from her final pursuits in licking the chocolate cleanly from a fondue fork, and exited from the booth in as swift and efficient a manner as possible. There were still too many eyes upon Team Ten's straggling members.

The two Green Beasts were nowhere to be seen as Hyuuga Neji offered his hand to a wobbly Tenten before promptly escorting her away from the latest hole he had burned into his wallet. A chilly night breeze gently swished across their flushed complexions and a companionable silence fell. Tenten leaned heavily against Neji as the day's activities caught up to her.

"Neji, I do believe that was our second kiss."

"The second. And the last."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. I merely acknowledged it was the second," Neji remarked acerbically, "Being, of course, the one following the first."

"Hmmm…My apologies for violating you."

Neji's lips tingled with something. Indignation? Exasperation? Affection? All three?

"Again."

Tenten laughed at Neji's stoic expression.

"Apology accepted. In the future, please be more aware of your surroundings and refrain from…ah…accosting my person in a similar fashion, if possible. I doubt even real members in…ah…relationships demand such frightening demonstrations of affection."

Dropping her head back against Neji's shoulder, Tenten allowed the rest of the journey to pass in silence. A small red house swam into view as the couple reached their destination. With her left hand, Tenten applied a brief pulse of chakra and allowed her energy to hum through the labyrinth of traps she had constructed. Jimmying the key in the lock, Tenten unlocked the door and gave a gentle push.

"Goodnight," said Neji as he retreated from her steps and began his own way home, nonchalantly skipping over a brace of kunai on the ground.

Tenten shut the door and flopped down on a couch. It seems all the tips Ino had fed her in preparation of creating real intimacy seemed to work, without the requirement for much effort on her part! Kiss the man silly enough times and it wouldn't be nearly as awkward. This was highly encouraging news as arse-in-chief Hyuuga Hiashi had sent a firm letter requiring her presence at his table in no later than two weeks from today, never mind that date could very well have been her funeral instead. If she really thought about it, two kisses exacted from a somewhat willing Neji could almost equate to a normal declaration of courtship. Hiashi would just have to be satisfied enough to believe his asexual nephew did not require assistance in the act of procreation.

How hard could that honestly be?

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, in the middle of the Forest of Death, Uchimura Tanaka woke to find himself restrained to a misshapen practicing post. Several lengths of flexible, yet highly tensile green spandex looped around his body (Neji had finally found a use for his birthday jumpsuit), forcing him into an uncomfortable bend around a literal thorn in the backside. Further investigation revealed he was attached to a knobble-infested, gnarl-filled stump. His head rested comfortably in an indent while a jutting portion prodded his fabulously flabby rear. Any attempts to dislodge himself only worsened the pain in his butt and Tanaka gave up, allowing himself to sag back upon his roost. Several sore spots were poked and he immediately straightened himself. That Hyuuga had meant serious business when sealing his tenketsu. Various splotches of multicolored hematomas had developed and Tanaka had the distinct impression that his excretory system was no longer functioning properly; a kidney appeared to have been dented.

"SO," boomed Gai in his angriest voice. Both eyebrows were twitching madly on his red face, creating an image Tenten liked to call Caterpillar-Infestation-Of-Tomato. This was Gai's best attempt at an angry face, although the man was short a few problems to reach true rage.

"YOU ARE THE SCOUNDREL WHO THREATENED OUR TENTEN."

"No, sir," lied the pervert in his oiliest tones, "I don't know a Tenton at all."

Lee delivered a light smack to the man's cheek, fracturing a few delicate bones and delivering a broken nose. A thoroughly unmanly "squee" escaped the pervert's mouth. Blood trickled in a thick rivulet from a split lip, dripping off the pointy chin and sliding into the pathetic hairs that the pervert had been attempting to cultivate into an attractive goatee. It was fortunate that the hair follicles never completely developed for he would otherwise have sported an even more alarmingly disgusting appearance and shamed his very own mother, who had in fact mercifully died some years earlier.

"LYING IS NOT A YOUTHFUL ACTIVITY," reprimanded the younger Green Beast of Konoha. There was something about Uchimura Tanaka that thoroughly disrupted Lee's inner peace.

"NOR IS POISONING," bellowed Gai, mindless of his own (and many) attempts at force-feeding Neji and Tenten the Foods of Life.

"CRIMINAL ACTIVITY MUST BE PUNISHED," chorused Lee.

"AND THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEASTS OF KONOHA SHALL DELIVER JUSTICE IN ITS MOST YOUTHFUL FORM."

"What? What are you going to do to me?" squeaked out a terrified Tanaka. Were these insane monstrosities going to beat him up, remove his innards for homeopathic medicines, and sell his beating heart on the black market? Dare they do such a thing? Dare they?

"My father will have you hanged! He will have your names shamed! He will—"

"YOUR FATHER WILL, WITH TIME, COME TO SEE THE WISDOM IN THE YOUTHFUL PATH."

"Gai-sensei! I just noticed that this wooden thing pervert-san is affixed to is…well, was, my favorite training stump. It is most unfortunate the wood was dented by the vigor of our training."

"Why, yes. Lee, would it not be a pity if we were to waste this training stump for want of a better shape?"

"Gai-sensei! Gai-sensei! What wise works do you suggest?"

"I suggest we reshape it and because pervert-san is so conveniently located within the vicinity of out stump ("You tied me here, you fools!" spurted from aforementioned pervert-san's mouth), perhaps we ought to use him to patch up the unevenness."

"Why, yes! Gai-sensei, nothing is more malleable than human flesh if one is determined enough. From a simple body, one can learn advanced jutsu and the secret to youth. Cannot the human body be manipulated to fulfill other training roles?"

"LEE! YOU HAVE SEEN THE PATH! NOW, WE SHALL WALK IT! TOGETHER!"

"_What a bunch of soft morons. They wouldn't hit me, they don't seem to have hit puberty even and that's an automatic given in the equation-of-things-you-can-hit,"_ thought an unsuspecting pervert-san.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

"GAI-SENSEI! THIS TRAINING IS MOST FORTUITOUS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY SKILLS IN TRUE BATTLE AGAINST TRUE ENEMIES!"

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

"ONE THOUSAND PUNCHES FOR TENTEN!" declared an ecstatic Gai. And thus, the Green Beasts began counting.

One.

Two.

Three.

It would be a terrifyingly long night for pervert-san.

Somewhere far, far away, Tenten turned over in her bed and smiled. She was having a very good dream involving retribution of the sweetest kind. And fruits of the sweetest kind. And various other methods with which one can have fun with foes and fondue.

* * *

I expect another two to three chapters in which Tenten meets the parents and the romance (if it may be termed such a thing) is resolved. Thank you for reading and may you review!


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